Getting Your App in the Shopify App Store

Building a new Shopify app? Congratulations! Third-party apps are an incredibly important part of the Shopify ecosystem. Every year, we publish hundreds of new apps that help with everything from accounting to localization.

Before you submit your app, there are plenty of details to think about. We've put together a checklist of items to consider before you submit your app for review. These insights will help you breeze through the approval process.

1. Graphics

Create a high-quality app card, app banner, and icon for your App Store listing. These graphics are often merchants’ first impression of your app, so it is important that this looks good and clearly communicates the value of your app.

2. Support

Plan out some effective support channels for your customers. We recommend putting both a phone number and an email address on your App Store listing so that merchants can talk to you about the app.

3. Monitoring

Set up a monitoring tool — like Pingdom or New Relic — to check on your app regularly and alert you to any problems. Merchants will be counting on your app to be reliable.

4. Installation

Double-check your installation flow. Merchants should be able to install your app quickly and easily using the green “Get” button on your App Store listing.

5. Scope

During the installation flow, your app will ask for scopes to access your customer's store. Make sure that these scopes are limited to what your app requires to function.

6. Reinstallation

Some merchants might decide to remove your app and try installing it later. Make sure that your app uninstalls and reinstalls gracefully. Register the app/uninstall webhook so that your app is notified of an uninstall and can perform any necessary cleanup.

7. Documentation

Create documentation for your app and make sure that users can easily find it. At a minimum, you should explain how to install the app, how to uninstall the app, and where to find help. You can use videos, FAQs, tutorials and other techniques to help users understand your product.

8. Theme changes

Make sure that any theme changes required by your app are as simple as possible. You can embed JavaScript in the storefront using the ScriptTag API — this can be really helpful because it will be removed automatically if you app is uninstalled.

9. Billing

Consider using the Billing API. This allows you to combine your app charges with your customers’ Shopify invoices. It’s a great way to make signing up easy and eliminate the hassle of setting up an independent billing system.

10. App description

Keep in mind that there are a wide range of merchants using Shopify. If your app is only useful for a subset of merchants, make that clear on the app detail page to avoid disappointing anyone. If your app has prerequisites, you can list those under the “Required” section of the App Store listing.

11. Marketing

Put together a marketing plan for the launch of your app. A press release, social media, emails (with permission) and partner co-marketing can help you get the word out and create buzz around your new app.

12. Demos

If your app adds functionality to the storefront, then showcase it in a test store. Link to the test shop from your app description, so that merchants can play around with it.